Does anyone know if Vegas uses video overlay to display the preview window. I remember in Premiere that you could open up your video card's overlay controls while in Premiere to adjust the display of the preview window. It even had options for "overlay" and "primary surface". I don't see these settings in Vegas?

I'm assuming Vegas doesn't' use overlay to display the preview window- reason being: I distinctly remember my still captures from within Premier turning out much darker than how they looked in the Preview window. Obviously showing it was a discrepency between monitor display calibration and overlay display settings. However in Vegas my captures look exactly like they do from within Vegas's preview window.

it depends on the network and what theyre requirements are.
But broadcast safe colour is a legal requirement now.
About 15 years ago i remember watching tv and the ads would come on and bang, half the audio was washed out in buzz evertime white came on screen.

Vegas has a broadcast safe filter which has templates for settings pertaining to where you are geographically in the world.

i would suggest you use these. However as your doing a commercial for broadcast use, i would strongly suggest you get in touch with the stations and find out what they require.

they might prefer to use their own. Im no expert in this as i dont usually work outside my little world, but im sure there are afew people here who can assist you with this query

as for vectorscopes, these allow you to view the colour range and together with the colour corection, allow for precise colour reprocessing

I used to work in broadcast in a fairly large market (Cincinnati) and the stations will run your video through processors that will correct the colors that are out of range. Depending on the quality of the processors that fix the signal and how the station engineers have them set, will determine how good your footage looks broadcast.

We used an HP model that allowed you to see the illegal colors and adjust them. If you were in a hurry or if it was being feed to a satellite etc. we'd push a button marked Make Legal and it would fix the colors. Most of the time it would look good. Occasionally it would clip the colors pretty hard.

1. Leave Holes may now be turned off in Multi-Cam Wizard even if effects have been added.
2. Eliminated possibility of duplicate nodes in Voice Over Wizard.
3. Now sets the default point in Velocity Wizard instead of creating a second point.
4. Sync Wizard is no longer Case-Sensitive.
5. Multi-Cam Wizard is no longer Case-Sensitive.
6. Multi-Cam Wizard now works correctly with Non-SMPTE rulers.
7. Multi-Cam Wizard "Dissolve By Default" option added (Requires "C" (i.e. "MC") for cut)
8. Voice-Over Wizard new option to Remove Previous Volume Adjustments.
9. Multi-Cam Wizard new option to alternate between two cameras without naming each marker.
10. Corrected problem reading Gap Dissolve from the INI file.
11. Gap Wizard now works when items are at the beginning of the timeline.
12. Gap Wizard now adds dissolves on cuts even when "Maintain Original Overlaps" is checked while allowing true overlaps to remain.
13. Corrected problem where Multi-Cam Wizard could skip moving a clip to the "Master" track.
14. Fade Wizard now has an option to change only the front fade or change only the end fade.
15. Corrected problem reading Fade Wizard options from the INI file.
16. Corrected problem not doing a first dissolve.
17. Corrected problem doing one and a half on the second dissolve.

I don't know anything about the Vegas filters, but I happen to know what legal colors are...Analog TV broadcasting means that the transmitter radiates amplitude modulated HF signals. This means for that the amplitude of the carrier (HF signal) is being changed in accordance to the video amplitude. NTSC uses "negative modulation" meaning that the brightest signal parts result in the lowest amplitudes. Because of the way audio is added (FM moulated carrier) and regenerated in the receivers (intercarrier), it turns out that the lowest value of the transmitted carrier must be above 10% in order to let the intercarrier demodulation at the receiver side work flawlessly (no rattle,buzz..). This means that the signals which are fed into the modulator at the transmitter side need to have limited amplitudes. Knowing that luma and chroma signals are being summed up before modulation, it's luma AND chroma(color) which need to be limited below a given level. Some of the summed up luma/chroma combinations can generate signals which have amplitudes which would end up in "overmodulation" (<10%) even when the luma (=B&W part) is perfectly within the limits. Those chroma signals which would cause this overmodulation in combination with legal luma signals are called "illegal colors". I suppose Vegas clips or indicates those unwanted combinations.